Daily Yellowstone journal., 1887-10-23
..Failing grown up peonle. determined

struck up a warm friendship. lie was o
bright, bold eyed boy, strong. rough and
unimaginatlve-a true young Briton.
.'When ! had finished my story this
young gentleman's eyer sparkled.
1--WE must kill the brute, Tom, he
said with decision.
AT first | shrank from the idea and
suggested the adoption of some milder
measures, but Master Harry insisted, de.
claring stoutly that the only way to get
rid Of a cat was to kill it.
lin the end my friend oyercame my
scruples. / consented to the death of the
white cat, and we discussed the molus
operandi. Children are s~ayages.''
Tom paused here, turned his face
farther into the gloom, and cleared his
throat before proceeding.
Several methods of killing the white
cat were suggested, he continued. speak
ing with grim deliberation, as though he
were deriving a savage pleasure in scourg-
ing himself. 1--WE would drown her in
the sea; but that would have necessitated
a great walk along the coast to escape
observation. The same objection applied
to the plan Of throwing her from the cliffs.
AT last Harry hit upon what we con-
sidered an excellent idea. His father had
a pistol which he kept in his port
manteau. Fortunately, he was accus-
toned to leave the portmanteau open.
The arrangement was that in the after
noon Harry would contrive to secure the
pistol. Then we would seek the white
cat in the neighborhood Of my aunt's
cottage. and. if luck attended us, we
would carry her to a field at the back and
shoot her. Nice boys, weren't we?
Luck did attend us-lusk in the
shape Of some mischievous cruel imp Of
darkness. Harry managed to steal the
pistol-a revolver il was, with five cham
bers, all loaded. l curse his father TO this
day for being such a careless IDIOT.
Harry, who was very business like,
brought an old sack with him. We
found our prey, after a long search,
sleeping in the warm sun on a low wall
at the rear of the cottage. She evidently
belonged to one Of the neighbors, but her
ownership was never discovered. Harry
pounced upon her before she could es-
cape, and after a short but sharp strug-
gle, in which we were both severely
scratched, we had her secure in the
sack. Harry tied up the mouth with
strong string.
ii had hung back at first with a sort
of shame-a faint sense Of the brutality
Of our behavior. But the struggle had
driven all this away. The native devil
~ Of the boy was ablaze | was furi-
Gus, exultant; | drowned the hideous
mufiled sounds that came from the sack
with wild laughter; | danced round the
wriggling, writing mass, and when we
had dragged it into the field | snatched
the pistol from Harry. who was very
quiet, 10 have the first shot. / fired
kneeling Close. 1t was the first time !
had fired a pistol. but felt no shock. l
remember a strange, piteous shrek, and
the sack dancing weirdly in front Of me.
| fired again, and remember a low graf
ing wall. and the sack being troubled for
a moment and then still.
Harry took the pistol from me- con-
tinued Harding, wiping his forehead,
land went home. | went on TO the
sands ar.l tried to play with the boys
there, but couldn't. was feeling hor-
ribly sick. The voice of the white cat
buzzed in my ears. The heaving sack
bodied about between my eyes and the
sunlight
AT supper my aunt noticed that |
looked ill and made me swallow some
medicine. When | had crept to my
room | sat down in the darkness near the
open window to try and cool my head,
which felt like splitting. But il was at
my heart that the chief agony lay-the
agony Of an unbearablc burden, the
crushing, suffocating weight Of shame, Of
fear, Of remorse. Can q child know these
things! you may ask. / answer that !
did; but / was not then a child. \
crime had aged me. | was an old man: a
murderer! Perhaps ! was unlike other
boys. | felt that | would have given
anything. suffered anything, to have UNI
done what | had done--torture. or V
death.
Il sat for a long time, and at last, sick
and dizzy, / slowly undrcsSel. Then /
thought, with a faint CLEAN Of hope,
Of my prayers. | sank down by
the bed. first sitting, then knceling. and
tried; but nothing my mother had taught
me would meet such a case as that. At
last a few tears came and opened a way
of escape for the fearful weight that was
sitting ne. Soon | was sobbing wildly
and unchecked, and beating my wet
face with my open hands. Once in my
paroxysm | stretched my arms over the
bed; they encountered sometime soft and
strange. ] sprang 10 my feet in mad
terror. and rent the silence of the cottage
with a piercing shrek. My aunt hurried
into the room with a candle, and there,
coiled up in the center Of the white
quilt, which was stained with her blood,
lay the body Of the white cat.
'The fastening Of the sack had become
loosened in her struggle; she had escaped
and crawled TO her favorite resting place
TO die.
"What | have told you" concluded
Tom, rising to go, sis the solemn truth,
so help me heaven!'
.
Should this reach the eye Of Thomas
Harding, whose story | have taken the
liberty Of telling to the world for the
sake Of its moral, | wish him to know that
there is now no just cause or impediment
TO his paying me a visit. and that I should
be delighted il he would do so. The fact
is that a year after his last flying visit
We were blessed with a baby boy, upon
whom we lavished all our affection. II
was then that we discovered that the
Duchess was Of an exceedingly jealous
disposition. and it was soon apparent that